Excavator



Aug. 20, 1940.

D. H. YOUNG EXCAVA'I'OR Filed Nov 22, 1938 INVENTOR Dona/0 /7. Young BY f 5:

ATTO NEY Patented Aug. 20, 1940 i UNITED STATES EXUAVATOR Donald H. Young, San Francisco, Calif. assignor to The American Brake $hoe & Foundry (70., Chicago Heights, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application November 22, 1i38, Serial No. 241,781

1 Claim.

My invention relates to .excavators and particularly to dredges employing a plurality of buckets articulated together by pins to form a bucket line or chain. Due to the severe service condition under which such buckets and pins are utilized, it is necessary to change the pins from time to time in order to replace worn ones, and itis also advisable to change the position of the pins in the bucket from time to time in order to distribute the wear. But, perhaps of more importance, it is desirable to anchor the removable pin in operating position as well as may be, since any slight initial movement due to unavoidable inaccuracies in manufacture or installation is rapidly augmented in service until the pin is unusably loose and the relative movement between the pin and the bucket has produced excessive wear on both, which can be iairly well rectified by replacement of the pin, but which cannot at all economically or feasibly be rectified if repairs to or replacement of the bucket are necessary.

It is therefore an object of my invention to provide an excavator in which the pins are locked in position positively.

Another object of my invention is to provide an excavator in which the pin can be reversed and yet the pin locking device will be useful in either position of the pin.

Another object of my invention is to provide an excavator in which the bucket for accommodating the pin locking device is practically standard.

Another object of my invention is to provide an excavator in which a pin locking device is furnished for cooperation with a standard, parallel-sided locking pin head.

The foregoing and other objects are attained in the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an excavator incorporating the pin locking device of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-section the plane of which is indicated by the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation showing the opposite side of a portion of the excavator disclosed in Fig. 1.

In its preferred form, the excavator of my invention comprises a dredge bucket which has a pair of oppositely disposed and transversely inset cavities therein adjacent the bucket eyes, either of which is adapted to receive the parallelsided head of abucket pin. The cavities are virtually identical and each includes a pair of converging dihedral walls against one of which one side of the head is adapted to abut and between the other of which and the other side of the head a wedge is disposed. There pr.eferably' are flanges on the sides of the wedge disposed behind the locking pin head and behind the adjacent dihedral wall, and a bolt which is threaded through the wedge abuts a substantially radial wall on the bucket so that upon rotation of the bolt the wedge firmly holds the bucket pin in '1 eye 9 and at the other end a pair of transversely.

aligned or coaxial eyes ll through which is adapted to pass the circular-cylindrical bddy 12 of a bucket pin [3. This pin is preferably of substantially standard design and includes a head l4 bounded by a pair of parallel sides l6 and [1. The pin is adapted to occupy reversibly either the position disclosed in Fig. 1, with the head at one side of thebucket body 6, or the position disclosed in Fig. 3, with the pin head at the other side of the bucket body.

To accommodate the bucket pin head in either of its positions, I preferably form the bucket with a pair of cavities l8 and I9 which are substantially identical except for the transposition of parts depending upon in which of the. two sides of the excavator body the cavity is disposed.

The cavities are partly bounded by lower dihedral walls 2| and 22, both of which occupy substantially the same transverse plane and which preferably are tangent to the body [2. ,Also partially bounding the cavity are upper dihedral walls 23 and 24, both of which occupy substantially the same transverse plane and converge toward the walls 2| and 22 in a direction away Irom,

In order to lock the bucket pin in position firmly despite possible variations in manufacture, or even after successive pins have been worn and replaced, I provide a wedge 3| which is disposed against the pin face 16 and against the wall 23, being moved into appropriate wedging position by a through-bolt 32 which has threads 33 engaging the Wedge and which extends into abutment with an end-wall 34 which is substantially radial to the body of the pin l2 and is coplanar with a corresponding wall in the cavity on the opposite side of the bucket body. By appropriately rotating the bolt 32 the wedge 3| is moved into position holding the pin head in place.

In order to prevent lateral dislodgment of the Wedge, I preferably aiford on opposite sides of it a pair of longitudinally extending flanges 3B and 3? which lie behind the head of the bucket pin and behind the dihedral wall 23 respectively. In order to hold the bolt and wedge in appropriately adjusted position I thread upon the bolt a locking means, such as a locking nut 38.

When the mechanism assembled as shown in Fig. 1 is to be reversed, for various reasons, among which is wear upon the pin body l2, the nut 38 and the bolt 32 are slacked off so that the wedge 35 relieves the clamping action on the head of the bucket pin. The pin and wedge are both then withdrawn from the Fig. 1 position and the pin is reversed and reintroduced into the bucket eye on the opposite side, so that the cavity is occupied as disclosed in Fig. 3. The wedge is correspondingly introduced in the opposite cavity and the tightening action of the bolt 32 is again relied upon to clamp the bucket pin in its reverse position. No changes in the pin construction from standard, and no alterations in the wedge, are necessary in order to render them both appropriately usable foreither direction of insertion.

The relationship of the wedge and its cavity is preferably such that upon slacking off of the bolt 32 and removal of the nut 38, the wedge can be moved toward the wall 34 until the width of the recess is suilicient to pass the flanges 36 and 31. The wedge can then be moved bodily laterally out of the recess without disturbing the bucket pin, so that wedges can be interchanged without disconnecting successive buckets in the bucket line.

I claim:

An excavator comprising a dredge bucket, said bucket having a pair of transversely aligned eyes and a pair of transversely inset cavities formed in opposite sides of said bucket adjacent said eyes contoured to provide transversely coplanar dihedral walls converging away from said eyes and to provide transversely coplanar end walls substantially radially of said eyes, a reversible bucket pin having a cylindrical body adapted to pass throughboth of said eyes and having at one end a parallel-sided head adapted to occupy either of said cavities with one sideof said head in abutment with one of said dihedral walls, a wedge disposed between the other side of said head and the other dihedral wall of the particu lar cavity occupied by said head, flanges extending from the sides of said wedge and interposed between said bucket body and said head and said other dihedral wall respectively, and a bolt threaded through said wedge and abutting the adjacent end wall.

DONALD H. YOUNG. 

